Our children won’t stand by and be slaughtered

In the middle of last month in Tallahassee, that cesspool of moral depravity and the former slave-trading capital of the Confederacy, a somewhat unusual thing happened. Rather than attend free cocktail parties and dinners with lobbyists and corporate honchos, the Florida House of Representatives took up two bills to consider.

The first bill addressed the issue of pornography in Florida (and keeping the morals of the citizens of Florida high and clean). The legislators also voted 71-36 to block a move by Democrats to bring to the floor a bill that would ban the sale and possession of semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, like the ones used by the shooter at the Parkland massacre.

Leave it to our God-fearing legislature to protect our morals and to make sure that we have easy access to assault weapons -- oh, and it goes without saying, to ensure that those checks will keep coming in from the National Rifle Association. I wonder, are those checks made out to cash these days?

The vote was primarily along party lines, which is another interesting situation. Even though Florida’s division of elections shows 260,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans throughout the state (as of last month), somehow the legislature is skewed 2-to-1 in favor of Republicans.

Can you say “gerrymandering?”

And voter fraud?

The reason Democrats forced the vote on hearing the weapons bill was that Republicans had been using legislative technicalities to keep the bill tied up in a house subcommittee for months. They had no intention of ever hearing the bill.

This political chicanery happens all the time in Tallahassee, and that’s why very little is accomplished up there in southern Georgia.

But as all this was going down at the capitol, it became suddenly clear that we have here a generation of students who aren’t going to stand around and be slaughtered. Yes, they’re having vigils and grieving; they’re also being proactive. And they’re scaring the hell out of President Dumpster.

I haven’t seen anything like this since the Vietnam days. I’m happy to see the action. Proactivity is good, especially when politicians believe they can do anything they want without bothering to check with us, the people.

Just before the legislature stifled any debate on assault weapons, they took up another very serious issue, pornography. “I ask that you keep this bill and the conversation about the solution to combat mass shootings alive,” said Rep. Kionne McGhee (D) of Miami. He went on to say, “While this is an extraordinary procedural move, the shooting in Parkland demands extraordinary action.” I think this is a striking understatement.

With a little bit of sarcasm here, I can’t believe that we’re comparing pornography with murder, but then again, when you have a president who is clueless, nothing is out of the realm of public insanity.

And the Florida Legislature, again, has shown how stupid in can be. The pornography bill was discussed for several hours, and then passed on a voice vote. Last time I checked, no one has died as a direct result of porn, or even indirectly.

Gun ownership? Mass shootings? Well, that’s another matter. Again, I think one of the major issues here is that Tallahassee is too close to Georgia. Or maybe Georgia is too close to Tallahassee.

It was exceptionally funny and deeply saddening to see our esteemed governor, Rick Scott, and his “Blondie” sidekick, Pam Bondi, who are both looking for new elected jobs, walking around looking for TV cameras like hungry pigeons chasing a peanut.

Scott is running for the U.S. Senate against Sen. Bill Nelson. Nelson is a quiet, thoughtful man who has done a good job in the Senate. Scott, on the other hand, is a two-term governor who bought his way into the GOP with his ill-gotten gains from Medicare scamming. Quite frankly, I cannot find one positive thing that Scott has accomplished as governor.

Bondi, as Florida’s attorney general, has accomplished even less, and has probably made more stupid comments in her first years in office than anyone I can remember. And believe me, there are a hell of a lot of stupid politicians in Florida. It was so bad that even Scott had to tell her to shut up at one point.

Every time I see Wayne LaPierre, the something-or-other of the NRA, on television -- and boy, has he been on TV a lot lately -- he’s always telling us how good it is to have 300 million guns in America and how they’re keeping us safe. The way people are dying in America from gunfire, I somehow don’t believe him.

His infamous quote: “To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.”

So, Wayne, baby, if those good guys with guns are saving so many people, why don’t we hear about it?

Feedback:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it